Newsletters
Coming online events ahead November – December 2025
As we close out 2025, take a look at all the online presentations being offered by church reform organizations from around the world.
We feel you will find these interesting and valuable. We hope you will attend!
Two Part Training
One of the biggest challenges to creating a synodal parish is positional thinking, i.e. sides each holding on to their position so strongly that each one is unable to really listen and learn from the other side. This training session helps address this issue and offer guidance how to move past this obstacle to holding the belief that maybe, just maybe, each of us has something more to learn about all of this. This can be done without ever letting go of your true and deepest values as a person. Both instruction and application are indluded in this two-part training program
Presentations coming in October from various Continents
Presentations for the month of October 2025 sponsored by CCRI, Future Church, and Root & Branch.
There are five very special presentations in the month of October. Select your favorite or attend all five!
The Spirit will be speaking to all who attend.
Two Important Church Reforms: Making Young People Feel Welcomed and Respecting Women’s Equality
Join the CCRI Young Seekers for a special two-hour Zoom gathering. This session will offer a valuable opportunity for young people to share the challenges they face in the Church and wider society and what it would take to make young people feel more welcomed.
John Rev. Christina Rees, Episcopal priest, who will share her journey over a quarter of a century fighting for women’s ordination in the Anglican Church. She will offer guidelines to Catholic women who feel called to the priesthood.
Learn how to bridge differences in your conversations with those of opposite viewpoints
Join our global seminar on Non-Positional Thinking led by Dr. Ariane David.
We live in a time when political and cultural divisions feel unbridgeable. Facts don’t change minds. Debates go in circles.
Non-Positional Thinking offers a way out.
Recording of Courageous Opposition to Totalitarianism in Latin America
This presentation focused on the life and legacy of Saint Oscar Romero, a Catholic bishop and martyr who advocated for social justice in El Salvador. Next a presentation followed on current human rights issues in Latin America. Discussions covered Romero’s transformation from a conservative bishop to a vocal advocate for the poor, his assassination, and his enduring impact as a symbol of faith and resistance against tyranny. The meeting addressed the deteriorating human rights situation in various Latin American countries, emphasizing the need for continued support for human rights defenders and the importance of upholding democratic values in the face of growing authoritarianism.
Courageous Opposition to Totalitarianism in South America
The Networks for Church Reform are managing a series of discussions on the role of Christians who have opposed dictatorial Governments. The initiative is led by Catholic Church Reform International. With the rise of autocracies, it is vital that Christians are alert to the dangers they pose. Presentations have examined the life and ministry of Fr Maximilian Kolbe and Sr Restituta Kafka, of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Fr Max Metzger.
On Wednesday 21st May the life and example of Archbishop Oscar Romero will be considered with a presentation by Julian Filochowski. Co-chair of the Romero Trust. Others with experience of life in Latin America will be involved.
Courageous Opposition to Nazism
There is an urgency, and we need to be committed to the moral imperative to stand against injustice and oppression. We can be inspired by the courage of those who defied Nazism.
The call is for bold action in the face of today’s crises, naming the suffering in Gaza, the erosion of democracy in the U.S., and widespread global injustices.
Silence is not an option.
Communities of faith need to speak out fearlessly.
Election of New Pope to begin May 7, 2025
The individual elected pope, Benedictine Father Donato Ogliari said, “must courageously and gently bear the weight of the church, advance without fear in the challenges of the present time, and be for all a living sign of the Lord’s merciful closeness.”
During the general congregations, or “pre-conclave” meetings, cardinals receive meditations to help prepare them for their future decision. In his meditation on April 29, Father Ogliari outlined the spiritual qualities the next pope should embody, a portrait the cardinals will consider when they gather in conclave beginning Wednesday, May 7.
To guide the cardinals spiritually, Ogliari urged them to center their choice on Christ and be led by the Holy Spirit. He also reminded them of the crucial impact their decision would have on the future of the church, while emphasizing the need for the cardinals to remain open to the challenges of the contemporary world. “Even though the place of the ‘conclave’—as the term itself indicates—is a place locked away, it will, in reality, be wide open to the entire world.”
Establishing and Supporting Pastoral Councils for both Dioceses and Parishes
In this presentation, Sr. Donna Ciangio, Chancellor to Cardinal Tobin in Newark, New Jersey, offered a step-by-step guide to setting up diocesan and parish pastoral councils. Sister used PowerPoint slides, which you can save and use to set up a new council or adjust existing councils that need to be more inclusive of lay representation in your community.